Initial tests of package in Britain not a bomb- FBI

NEW YORK: A suspicious package found on a UPS plane stopped in Britain was initially tested and found not to contain explosives, an FBI source said on Friday.

U.S. authorities were investigating “potentially suspicious items” on Friday on cargo planes that landed at airports in Newark, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, the Transportation Security Administration said. AGENCIES

Initial tests of package in Britain not a bomb- FBI

NEW YORK: A suspicious package found on a UPS plane stopped in Britain was initially tested and found not to contain explosives, an FBI source said on Friday.

U.S. authorities were investigating “potentially suspicious items” on Friday on cargo planes that landed at airports in Newark, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, the Transportation Security Administration said. AGENCIES

Vice President Bidens Mother, Jean, Dies at 92

WILMINGTON, Del: Jean Biden, who raised her son Vice President Joe Biden to believe in what he called “America’s creed … everyone is your equal,” died Friday after falling ill in recent days. She was 92.

In a statement, the vice president said she died in Wilmington surrounded by her family and loved ones. She had suffered a broken hip in a fall in March 2009.

“Together with my father, her husband of 61 years who passed away in 2002, we learned the dignity of hard work and that you are defined by your sense of honor,” he said in the statement. “Her strength, which was immeasurable, will live on in all of us.”

Joe Biden Jr. was first elected to the Senate in 1972, shortly before his 30th birthday. His mother helped out by organizing coffee klatches — part of a family effort that also included Biden’s father, sister and brothers.”Those of you who have met my mom, you know she’s fairly politically astute, and she still runs the show,” the vice president quipped shortly after she fell last year.

“You think I’m joking? I’m not,” he said.

The former Catherine Eugenia Finnegan was born July 7, 1917, in Scranton, Pa. In 1941, she married businessman Joseph Biden Sr., with whom she had four children. The couple moved from Scranton to Claymont, Del., in 1953, when their eldest son, Joe, was 10 years old.According to Biden’s 2007 autobiography, “Promises to Keep,” his mother had some reservations about whether he should risk a promising career as a young lawyer to enter politics.

“You’re not going to run for Senate and ruin your reputation, are you?” he recalled his mother asking.

“And once Mom was reassured that my future was safe, win or lose, she would do anything,” Biden wrote.

Biden was elected vice president as Barack Obama’s running mate. In his speech at the Democratic National Convention in August 2008, he paid tribute to his mother, who was in the audience.”My mother’s creed is the American creed: No one is better than you,” he said. “Everyone is your equal, and everyone is equal to you. My parents taught us to live our faith, and to treasure our families. We learned the dignity of work, and we were told that anyone can make it if they just try hard enough.”

Biden said he also learned honor and loyalty from his mother.

“When I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, and this is the God’s truth, she sent me back out the street and told me, ‘Bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day.’ And that’s what I did.”

Raised in a family with a strong Irish Catholic tradition, Jean Biden leaned on her faith in comforting her eldest son after his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash in December 1972, the month after he was elected to the Senate. His two sons were seriously injured.

“After the accident, she told me, ‘Joey, God sends no cross that you cannot bear,’” Biden recalled.

In his autobiography, Joe Biden recalled being mocked by a seventh-grade nun for his stuttering, an incident that sent his mother to his school in a fury, her children in tow.

“If you ever speak to my son like that again, I’ll come back and rip that bonnet off your head. Do you understand me?” she told the nun.Joe Biden also recalled how when his mother couldn’t find a pair of cufflinks for him to wear to an eighth-grade dance, she fashioned a pair from nuts and bolts, which left him mortified.”Now look, Joey, if anybody says anything to you about these nuts and bolts, you just look them right in the eye and say ‘Don’t you have a pair of these?’” she told him.

Jean Biden is survived by the vice president, daughter Valerie Biden Owens of Kennett Square, Pa., and sons James Brian Biden of Merion Station, Pa., and Francis W. Biden of Florida. She had 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Details of services will be released in coming days, the vice president’s office said.

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Vice President Bidens Mother, Jean, Dies at 92 was first posted on January 9, 2010 at 4:29 pm.

Arrest in Newark Airport Security Breach

NEW YORK: Authorities on Friday arrested a man suspected of triggering a security scare that shut down Newark’s international airport this week.

Haisong Jiang, 28, of Piscataway, N.J., was arrested on charges of defiant trespass, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement. No further details about the circumstances of the arrest were provided.

The security breach rattled officials and the airline industry, coming on the heels of an attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner on Christmas Day.

A security video released on Thursday showed a man slipping into a secure area at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday night to give a woman a goodbye kiss. The breach led to the closure of the Newark airport for hours, delaying thousands of passengers at the end of a holiday weekend.

The video, released by U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, also showed a federal officer at the airport leaving his post before the man walked by and into a secure area.

Earlier in the video, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer is seen seeming to ask the same man to move away from the security cordons that guide arriving passengers out of the secure area and into the concourse.

On the video, the TSA officer left his desk and walked toward the airport concourse, after which the man slipped underneath a security cordon. He then met a departing female passenger who had passed through a security checkpoint and kissed her before they walked off holding hands.

The TSA officer has been placed on administrative leave.

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Arrest in Newark Airport Security Breach was first posted on January 9, 2010 at 5:23 pm.

Newark Airport Lockdown

Newark Airport Lockdown: An incident at Newark Airport is causing traffic hiccups throughout the US.  All flights out of Newark have been canceled because of a security breach. For those not familiar with the airport, it is one of the main airports servicing the New York City area. The airport is located in New Jersey.

What happened to cause the lockdown? A man walked out the wrong side of a security checkpoint in terminal C.  Passengers are not being allowed in to or out of Terminal C and it’s been said that everyone in that area will need to be screened.

Expect delays across the country, as Newark is one of the busiest airports servicing 30 million passengers per year.

The security breach took place just one day after increased security measures started after a thwarted Christmas Day terrorist attack.

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Newark Airport Lockdown was first posted on January 4, 2010 at 3:38 pm.

Hakeem Nicks Injury

Hakeem Nicks Injury, According to Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star Ledger WR Hakeem Nicks does not have an injury to his Lisfranc joint. Giant fans know they Lisfranc injury well as it forced Justin Tuck and Michael Strahan to miss significant time in the past. Nicks is most likely out 2-3 weeks.

It was clear from yesterdays game that Nicks was going to be apart of the offensive schemes. It was also clear that he is ready for these duties. Eli had Nicks flash on a deep post but was unable to make the throw as he was being hit. Nicks was wide open on a crossing pattern as well, and although Eli under threw the pass Nicks still should have made the catch. He ended up with 2 catches for 19 yards, but the key was he was already on the field and apart of the scheme, already a good sign for a rookie wideout.

Ware is expected to miss several weeks with a dislocated elbow, the Giants are expected to sign Allen Patrick off the practice squad to replace him.

With Ware out it means added carries for Ahmad Bradshaw who continues to show he deserves them, stil having fresh backs in December is important.

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Hakeem Nicks Injury was first posted on December 22, 2009 at 10:22 am.